AMD and ARM partner up to battle Intel in the server space

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AMD revealed at a press event in San Francisco yesterday that it will be further diversifying its server offerings to include future high-density SeaMicro machines powered by ARM processors. The move to ARM processors is an interesting one, and will allow AMD to offer a complete lineup of servers with processor options that include low-power ARM chips, heterogeneous APUs, or its high end Opteron processors.

AMD revealed that it will license a processor design from ARM for use in high-density servers, to be released sometime in 2014. This means that AMD will not be designing its own ARM cores (like Apple did with the A6). Rather, ARM will provide AMD with a “stock” 64-bit capable processor design, which will keep the cost of entry low and allow AMD to flesh out its ARM-based server products with a faster turnaround time. If successful, AMD could always up the license to allow them to create their own custom ARM chips, should the higher costs of licensing and developing an in-house chip be deemed profitable.

Details are particularly scarce as far as specifications go — or even which SoC AMD has chosen — but we’re probably looking at a Cortex-A15 design. One interesting bit of information that was revealed though is that AMD will be harnessing SeaMicro’s Freedom Fabric ASIC interconnect technology to cluster the ARM chips. According to AMD, ARM processors cannot fill network links as efficiently as larger x86 processors can, so using Freedom Fabric gives AMD a leg up on the competition. The servers will connect each ARM SoC into a cluster, which will in turn be networked to other servers and equipment.

Unfortunately, there is no word yet on a specific release date for the chips or accompanying servers.

Updated: ARM has just unveiled the Cortex-A57 and Cortex-A53, two 64-bit server-oriented CPU designs. The A57 builds upon the Cortex-A15, and the A53 builds on the A7 (a slower, but very-low-power part). It’s fairly safe to assume that AMD will be using one or both of these designs.

AMD is positioning the ARM servers at data center and enterprise use. The company envisions using the low-power, high-density servers for hosting websites and other enterprise applications. They will be able to run Linux as well as the software required for web hosting (Apache, PHP, et al). AMD would like to get the proposed servers into businesses as the backbone of their private clouds, for example. The ARM servers would be cheaper and use less power than traditional servers thanks to SeaMicro’s ASIC (application specific integrated circuit) technology and ARM processors’ own low-power merits. The downside to the ARM servers is performance, of course, and AMD Opteron and Intel Ivy Bridge servers will continue filling that need (i.e. HPC workloads) for some time to come.

One interesting match-up of SeaMicro servers will be the ARM-powered servers versus those powered by Intel’s Atom CPUs. Interestingly, because AMD owns SeaMicro, the Sunnyvale company will make a profit no matter which CPUs are used. This diversity should allow AMD to cast a wider net for winning contracts and gaining customers.

The industry certainly seems to be moving in the direction of ARM-powered servers as the chips become more capable, so it will be interesting so see if AMD will be the first major player to enter the market. On the other side of things, Intel is noticeably absent from talks of ARM-powered servers. Instead, the chip giant is intently focused on bringing its x86-based processors down to the low-power market with smaller process nodes, better power management (including the ability to turn off portions of the CPU when not being used), and other efficiency tweaks to improve IPC. AMD and other ARM manufacturers have lower cost on their side, while Intel has vastly better software support thanks to being x86-based. The server wars are heating up, and it will be interesting to see which approach will win out in the end.

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